Shofar FTP Archive File: camps/aktion.reinhard/sobibor/razgonayev.001

Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
Subject: Holocaust Almanac: The Razgonayev Interrogations
Summary: Soviet interrogation record placing Dem'yanyuk in service of
the SS at Sobibor
Reply-To: kmcvay@nizkor.almanac.bc.ca
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
Organization: The Nizkor Project, Vancouver Island, CANADA
Keywords:
Archive/File: holocaust/poland/reinhard/sobibor razgonayev.001
Last-Modified: 1994/08/15
Source: United States Department of Justice
Copy
MINUTES OF THE INTERROGATION
September 20, 1948 The City of Dniepropetrowsk
We, the Deputy Director of the Department of Investigations at the
Ministry of State Security in the District of Dniepropetrowsk, Major
Nitchayew, and the Director of the Department of Investigations,
Capt. Ribalka, interrogated the accused
Mikhail Affanaseivitch Razgonayev
The interrogation began at 21:30 hours
The interrogation ended at 02 on September 22, 1948
The interrogation was interrupted from 01 to 10 on September 20, and
from 17 to 20 on September 21, 1948.
Question: Duriong the investigation, you testified to the effect
that from May 1942 until July 1943, you served as a Wachman and then
as an Oberwachman in a mass extermination camp. State the exact
location of the camp.
Answer: As I testified in the previous interrogations, after I had
completed in May 1942 the school of SS Forces at Trawniki and
received the title of Wachman (guard in the SS forces), I was sent
for practical work to a special camp that was located in the
twonship of Sobibor.
The camp was in the area of Poland, about 50 kilometers from the
town of Chelm and about 100-150 kms from the township of Trebnicki
where I had undergone training as a Wachman.
The Sobibor camp was located in a forest, on an area that had been
specially prepared. Not far from the Sobibor junction were the
railway lines that passed the junction to the camp.
About the designation of this railway line, I shall tell below.
Question: What was the camp called?
Answer: I don't know what the Germans called the camp. I personally
knew the camp as Sobibor Camp, named after the rail junction near
which it was located. It is possible that the Germans had a special
name for the camp, but I do not know about it.
Question: Describe the Sobibor camp.
Answer: I have already testified above that the Sobibor camp was
located near the Sobibor rail junction. There were no other
residential buildings or populated areas in the proximity of the camp.
The camp was located within a forest clearing, in an area from which
the trees had been removed.
The area of the camp was 2-3 square kilometers.
The whole area of the camp was fenced with one row of barbed wire to a
height of 2 meters - there were no other fences around the camp,
beyond the barbed wire fence was forest.
In the barbed wire fence, in the direction of the railway junction,
there were two openings: one for the passage of trains, which was
closed off with wood gates that were opened only when a train was
arriving at the camp, and a second entrance - alongside the first, for
the passage of the staff to the camp and for carts. This entrance was
also operated through wooden gates. Both entrances to the camp were
carefully guarded by Wachmans from among the Volksdeutche. By the camp
entrances, inside the camp, there was a guard post in which was
located the detail of duty guards in charge of the entrance to the
camp. There were no other entrances.
Alongside the railway line that was located within the camp a wooden
hut was built that was intended for disembarkation of people from the
carriages.
The unloading site was separated from the area of the camp by a
barbed wire fence.
From the unloading site, a special passageway of barbed wire fed to
the area of the camp, through which people arrived directly to the
camp. Two wooden huts had been put up in the camp, termed "dressing
rooms".
The "dressing rooms" were also fenced off with barbed wire, in which
were special passageways from each hut that led to a large stone
building that was termed "bath-house" and it was not possible to see
through them what was happening by the "bath-house".
In the part of the camp where the "bath-house" was located - a wooden
hut had been put up at which the "work detail", that was specially
allocated for work in the gas chambers, stayed.
In the other part of the camp, where the dressing rooms were located,
a number of wooden huts, cut off from them, were built and used as
storerooms where the effects and clothes of the people who arrived at
the camp were sorted and kept.
At the same place there were huts for a second work detail that
engaged in the sorting of the clothes of the people who had been
exterminated at the camp.
Not far from the entrance to the camp were located a number of
buildings in which we stayed, - we, the Wachmans, Germans - among the
work detail in the camp; apart from that there were also other
buildings - a dining room, hairdresser, laundry and others. All these
buildings were also located within the camp, but not far from the exit
of the camp about which I have testified already above.
The work detail comprised over 100 persons. I will tell later about
the composition and designation of the work detail.
Question: What was the designation of the camp that was located in the
Sobibor township?
Answer: It must be noted that the definition "camp" was not accurate
in this case because, as a rule, the prisoners were not held in it and
the camp was not constructed to hold detainees.
If one does not take into account the work details and the staff of
Germans and Wachmans, no-one was held in the camp.
The Sobibor camp was a death camp. This was a factory especially
equipped for the mass destruction of Jews.
In accordance with the designation of the camp, as a place for the
mass destruction of people, it was guarded in a greater way by Germans
and by us - the Wachmans. To this end, it was located in a remote
forest. All the inside buildings of the camp were isolated from each
other by a system of barbed wire; all the passageways through the
barbed wire were carefully guarded.
Gas chambers were operated for the purpose of the mass destruction of
people at the camp.
Question: When was the Sobibor camp set up?
Answer: I cannot say exactly when the Sobibor camp was set up because
I do not know that.
I personally arrived for service at the Sobibor camp in May 1942; at
that time most of the camp was built and functioning, that is to say -
mass exterminations of people had already been implemented there.
However, during the period of my service at the Sobibor camp from May
1942 to July 1943 - the construction work at the camp continued.
I, among others, took part in the construction of building for
dressing rooms and clothes stores and in July 1943 I was sent from the
Sobibor camp to the area of Russkaya in order to prepare building
materials for the camp.
Question: Under the management of which German body was the Sobibor
camp?
Answer: Sobibor death camp, at which the mass destruction of people
took place, was managed by the German Penal Institutions - the SS
forces.
The whole administration that provided services at the camp among the
Germans was in the service of the SS forces. We - the Wachmans, who
performed destruction activities at the Sobibor camp, together with
the Germans, we also served in the German Penal Forces, the SS.
Question: Who was the commander of the Sobibor camp for mass
destruction?
The commander of the Sobibor death camp was a German officer of the SS
forces. I do not know his rank or surname. His deputy was Oberltnt.
Neiman, also an officer in the SS forces.
All the activity of the camp for mass destruction was performed under
their direct command.
Question: Tell about the structure and system of mainpower of the
management and service details at the camp.
Answer: As I have testified above, the camp commander, or, as he was
called in the camp, commandant, oversaw all the activity of the camp.
He had subordinates - his deputy and a number of SS officers who
belonged to the management staff of the camp. I am not able to recall
at present what the number was of the officers or their rank, but I
well remember that the belonged to the command administration of the
camp, personally ran the operations for mass destruction of the people
at the camp. What the concrete role of the officers was - I cannot
say.
The service staff of the camp consisted of German NCOs and soldiers,
the number of whom at the camp was about 30. The camp staff also
comprised Wachmans from among the Volksdeutch, whose status at the
camp was higher than ours - of the Wachmans, and was equivalent to
German soldiers.
I personally during my service at the camp belonged to a group of
Wachmans comprising 70-80 persons.
The group of Wachmans was divided into a number of platoons, the exact
number of which I do not recall, about 20 per platoon. Each platoon
was headed by a Wachman or an Oberwachman from the Volksdeutch who had
good mastery of German.
The role of the Germans at the Sobibor camp was mainly expressed in
that they directly managed our work - of the Wachmans and of the "work
detail".
The camp staff also included the "work detail" that was set up from
among the civilians arriving at the destruction camp - the healthiest
and the youngest.
At the Sobibor camp there were 2 work details, as I have testified
above. One detail, comprising 50 people, worked in that part of the
camp where the building with the gas chambers was built, that a second
work detail, of 10 people mostly women serviced, working by the
clothing stores on the sorting of effects and clothes of the people
who had been exterminated at the camp.
The work of the two details was commanded by Germans of the rank of
NCO, whose surnames I do not recall. Apart from this, a service detail
of the camp also included a kapo.
To the position of kapo, people were appointed from among the
civilians arriving at the destruction camp. These were, in effect,
policemen who supervised the work and the order within the "work
detail" that was also made up of civilians who had been brought to the
camp for extermination purposes but were not exterminated because they
were used for work.
I shall testify below as to the role of the kapo when people arrived
at the camp and at the time of the extermination.
In previous interrogations, I have testified to the effect that in
1943 a group of Russian girls was brought to the Sobibor camp, Soviet
citizens, who performed at the camp work of laundresses and cleaners.
They would launder the clothes of the Germans and ourselves - the
Wachmans and cleaned the rooms in which the Germans lived.
These girls, of whom there were about 20, also belonged to the service
administration of the camp.
I have enumerated all the categories comprising the management and
service staff of the Sobibor death camp.
Other people were not held at the camp. All the people who arrived at
the camp were exterminated in gas chambers, especially equipped for
the purpose.
Question: What guarding and what regime were at the camp?
Answer: The guard duty at the camp was undertaken mainly by the
Wachmans under the command and management of the Germans and the
Wachmans from the Volksdeutche.
The guard duty at the camp was undertaken in the following way.
Outside the camp, beyond the barbed wire fence were placed guard posts
- 2 Wachmans every 200 meters, such that the whole area of the camp
from the outside was surrounded by Wachmans who kept between them
visual and audio contact. The role of the guards was to carefully
supervise so that none of the foreigners would come close to the camp
and also to prevent escape attempts from the camp through the barbed
wire.
So that the guarding of the barbed wire and the camp area would be
more effective, permanent guard towers were built at the corners of
the camp, and there, too, Wachmans stood on guard day and night.
Apart from that, the camp was also guarded from the inside.
In all parts of the camp, that were separated from each other, about
which I testified above, there were also guards who supervised that
none of the civilians who had been brought to the extermination camp
or those from the "work details" would escape from the camp through
the barbed wire. This guarding prevented all possibility of escape
from the camp.
One of the steps to prevent escape attempts from the camp on the part
of those sentenced to death was increased guarding over the entrance
to the camp by the Wachmans under the supervision of the Volksdeutche.
In addition to this, close to the exit from the camp there was a guard
station where Wachmans, who had been posted for the guard shift over
the exit from the camp, stayed.
Alongside a Wachman who stood on guard at the camp exit was always a
Wachman or an Oberwachman from the Volksdeutche.
In order to go from one part of the camp to the other, one had to
cross special passageways, fenced with barbed wire, that were also
carefully guarded by Wachmans and German soldiers.
Apart from the wire-fenced passageways, all the buildings within the
camp were guarded - the residential huts of the Wachmans, huts where
the "work details" stayed and the residential buildings of the Germans
and other buildings.
Wachmans who were posted to various positions used gradually to change
their places. The role of the Wachmans and German soldiers was
expressed in increased guarding of the camp, preventing the
possibility of the escape of people who had been brought to the camp
for extermination purposes.
The regime for the camp service staff was particularly harsh.
Very rarely were Wachmans sent outside the camp, and then only on
condition that someone from the Volksdeutsche accompanied them.
With regard to the civilians who were brought to the camp for
extermination, no regime was determined with respect to them for they
were not held at the camp and, as a rule, were exterminated on the day
of their arrival at the camp.
Question: What contingent of people would arrive at the camp for
extermination?
Answer: Only civilians of Jewish nationality would arrive for
extermination at the Sobibor camp. Men, women, old people and children
of various ages would arrive.
Exactly from which places these people came - I cannot say, because I
do not know that.
Question: How would these civilians arrive at the Sobibor camp?
Answer: I have testified above that a railway line passed through the
area of the camp. On this railway, on trains stright into the camp,
civilians of Jewish nationality would arrive for extermination.
The peole were brought in closed cargo wagons under the guard of
German soldiers.
The civilians were brought to the camp on the pretext that they were
being tranferred to the area of the Ukraine for settlement. Thus, they
travelled with the whole family, whith their private property,
together with the children.
The unloading of the trains was not undertaken in one go but in
stages. At one time, people were taken out of approximately 10 wagons,
and then another 10, etc.
The arriving civilians were told that they had been brought to the
camp as to a transit camp at which they would undergo sanitary
treatment and a medical board and afterwards they would receive a
referral as to exactly where to travel.
All this was done in oder to conceal the true objectives for which the
people had been brought to the camp.
After the disembarkation from the train, the people continued to be
deceived by all sorts of methods, of which I shall tell below. People
came to realize that they had been tricked only when instead of the
promised bath-house they were put into the gas chambers for
destruction.
Soldiers who used to accompany the train with the people were not
workers at the Sobibor camp. Therefore, immediately after unloading of
the train, they would depart with empty wagons to bring new victims.
On average, two trains a day would arrive at the camp - approximately
two thousand people, who were exterminated the same day.
Question: Where were the people referred to after their arrival at the
camp on the train?
Answer: Immediately after the people who were brought to the camp were
taken off the train, they were sorted according to the following
criteria: all the men who were capable of moving on their own were
referred to a separate hut that was isolated from other huts by a
barbed wire fence. As I have testified above, a number of huts,
isolated from each other, were allocated to "dressing rooms". Women
with children who were also capable of moving on their own were
referred to another isolated hut - a "dressing room".
Earlier, in the description of the camp and the buildings that were in
the area of the camp, I forgot to mention that, in the area of the
camp, at a distance from the huts - "dressing rooms", there was a
not-large building that was called "clinic".
As I testified above, during the sorting and separation of men and
women and their referral to the huts that were cut off from each
other, sick and weak persons were found who were unable to move on
their own.
People from the "work detail" would lead or carry these sick and weak
civilians to the "clinic" where, apparently, they would receive
medical aid. But, in fact, they, as the others, were exterminated.
Question: What were the reasons for this sorting of the people who
were arriving at the camp?
Answer: The separation of the people who were brought to the camp for
extermination was undertaken for camouflage purposes and to prevent a
rebellion. To this end, the men were separated from the women, as it
were to receive sanitary treatment.
While the selection of the sick and their referral to the "clinic" for
medical care was also done in order to camouflage the reasons for the
people having been brought to this camp.
It has to be added that Germans also thought about other details that
also served as camouflage for the true reason for which the people
were brought to the Sobibor camp.
Thus, for example, in the "dressing room" there were train
time-tables, all sorts of posters appealing to people to maintain
order, etc.
When the people were invited to the "bath-house", each one was given a
piece of soap.
The lie would end only when the people went into the gas chambers,
where they would discover that there was no bath-house and that they
had been taken there to be destroyed.
Question: What was the length of stay of the civilians at the camp?
Answer: As I have testified above, Sobibor camp did not serve as a
place where one could keep people for a long time. This was not the
purpose of the camp and it was not intended or equipped for that.
It was a place for mass destruction using means that had been
specially prepared for this. So all the people who were brought to the
camp were exterminated the same day.
The length of there stay at the camp would depend on the speed with
which they moved through the gas chambers and were exterminated.
This would not take more than a day. If on the same day a number of
wagons would arrive (on one day_ and there was no possibility of
exterminating them all that day, the train with the people would not
enter the camp area; it would wait at the Sobibor rail crossing under
guard of German soldiers who accompanied the train until the next day.
Question: What methods and means were taken for the destruction of the
people who were brought to the camp?
Answer: The people who were brought to the camp were destroyed in two
ways: through suffocating gas in special gas chambers and by shooting
in the area of the camp itself. The gas chambers, or as they were
termed for camouglage - "bath-house" was a stone building
punctiliously isolated by a system of barbed wire fences from other
parts of the camp and hidden by young trees, saplings in particular,
from the view of the huts - "dressing rooms", so that the people who
were in the "dressing rooms" would not be able to see what was
happening by the "bath-house". The "bath-house" was distant from the
"dressing rooms" so that the cries emerging from the gas chambers,
when the people realized that they had been tricked and were persuaded
that they had been brought there not to bath but for their
destruction, could not be heard.
In the building with gas chambers there was a wide corridow, on one
side of which were 4 chambers. In the four chambers, the floor,
ceiling and walls were of concrete' they had 4 special shower-heads
that were intended not to supply water but for the entry of exhaust
gases through which the people in the chambers were killed.
Each chamber had two doors: internal - on the corridor side through
which the people would enter the chamber and external that opened
outwards and through which the bodies would be removed.
The doors - the internal and the external - were closed hermetically
and fitted with rubber strips that did not allow the gas to escape
from the chamber.
Behind the rear wall of the building was located on a base, under an
awning, a strong motor that would begin to work the moment the
chambers were full and the doors were closed hermetically.
From the motor led a pipe that went through the ceiling of the
building corridor with the gas chambers. From the pipe would emerge
into each chamber a metal pipe, ending with a shower head that was
used in bath-houses for the supply of water.
Through this system the exhaust gases from the motor would be led into
the chamber.
Question: Who managed the mass destruction at the Sobibor camp?
Answer: All the activity of the camp for mass destruction of people
was run by a German commandant, about whom I testified above, by his
deputy and a group of officers in the SS forces that were included on
the managerial staff of the camp and directly ran the operation for
mass destruction of people.
Question: Who from among the Germans was personally called to
participate in these operations?
Answer: The whole administration of the German soldiers who served at
the Sobibor death camp participated in implementation of the
operations for mass destruction.
Their activity was expressed in that they managed and supervised the
work of the Wachmans and the "work detail". Apart from this, they
personally participated in the destruction of people in gas chambers
and implemented executions by shooting together with the Wachmans.
Question: What role in the mass destruction did other people who
served at the camp play?
Answer: Apart from the Germans, we - the Wachmans, former soldiers in
the Soviet army who betrayed the homeland and went to serve fascist
Germany, took part in the mass destruction of people at the camp.
Apart from that, people from the "work details" also took part in the
operations for mass destruction. The Germans would put together the
"work details" from among the people of Jewish nationality who were
brought to the camp for destruction - those who were physically the
most healthy and fit for work.
These people saw that all the Jews who were brought to the camp were
exterminated. The Germans would tell the people from the "work detail"
that they would use them for work at the camp and would promise them
to keep them alive.
Under threat of death and in the hope that they would remain alive,
the people who were chosen for the "work detail" undertook all the
work at the camp under the supervision of the Germans and the
Wachmans.
The Germans and the Wachmans did not enter behind the barbed wire
fences to the "dressing rooms" where people were prepared for
extermination. Only the people from the "work detail" worked there -
"kapo", because in the case of a rebellion, the Germans and the
Wachmans might have been killed.
The "work detail" dealt with clearing of the chambers after the people
who had been put into them had been killed and they would bring the
bodies to the pits in carts.
People from the "work detail" dealt with arranging and sorting clothes
of those who had been killed at the camp, they arranged them in
special storerooms.
Question: What work of preparation was done for the destruction of
people by the details who participated directly in this operation?
Answer: The work of preparation for destruction of the people began,
in effect, from the moment the train entered the area of the camp.
Before arrival of the train, the Germans would hold a briefing for the
Wachmans who participated that day in the guarding of the trains and
the barbed wire fenced passageways in the area of the camp, so as to
prevent any act that might disclose the purpose for which the people
had been brought to the camp; and particularly because the people who
were brought there would show suspiciousness, because among the people
rumors had already spread that the Germans had camps in extermination
of civilians of Jewish nationality was performed.
The Germans feared a rebellion on the part of the people who were
brought to the camp and they took all measures to prevent this,
because in the event of a rebellion, it would be impossible to
overcome it despite all the means of the camp staff.
The people from the "work detail" who were termed "kapo" would
approach the carriages and would conduct propaganda among those who
had arrived to the effect that they had been brought to the camp as a
sort of transit camp and that, after sanitary treatment and a
bath-house, they would be sent to the Ukraine for settlement or work
in industry.
"Kapo" was a member of the Jewish nationality; he would invite the
people who had arrived on the train to go to the "dressing rooms" and,
from there, to the "bath-house".
After unloading of the train and referral of the women with children
to one hut and the men to another, in each hut there was also a "kapo"
who would explain to the civilians that they must hand in their
jewelry and their money to a kitty, strop off and ready themselves for
the "bath-house", and that, after bathing, the valuables would be
returned to them.
Here, everyone would be given a piece of soap. This preparatory work
was done in order to camouflage the true intention of the camp and to
ensure security in performance of the extermination.
The Wachmans were posted behind the barbed wire fences in all the
passageways of the camp from the "dressing rooms" to the "bath-house"
in order to prevent attempts at escaping by the civilians who were
being referred to the gas chambers.
Question: How in fact was the destruction of people undertaken at the
Sobibor death camp?
Reply: The people were destroyed at Sobibor the following way:
The main method that made it possible to destroy such a large number
of people in a short time was, at the Sobibor camp, the method of
suffocation in the gas chambers using engine exhaust fumes that were
piped into the chambers.
During the time of my service as a Wachman and afterwards as an
Oberwachman at the Sobibor camp, I saw the process of extermination of
people with my own eyes.
In the first stage, the men were exterminated. Accompanied by a
"kapo", completely naked people, about 150-200, were referred through
the barbed wire passageways from the "dressing rooms" to the gas
chambers, without knowing they were going to die.
After a certain time, when this group of 150-200 people would enter
one of the gas chambers (each chamber contained 200 people), the same
"kapo" would return and accompany a new group of the same number of
people who would be put into a second chamber, and so it would
continue until all 4 chambers were full.
When the last chamber was full of people, a engine of great power
would be operated and for 15-20 minutes the exhaust fumes were piped
into the chambers. This time was sufficient to kill the people who had
been put into the chambers.
After the chambers were filled with people, a sign would be given by
the Germans who serviced the gas chambers, according to which an
engine of great power was operated. I cannot say how that engine was
built because I do not know.
After 15-20 minutes, the people in the chambers suffocated, the doors
would be opened, the gas from the chambers would leave and the "work
detail" would start on clearing the chambers.
The bodies from the chambers were taken by cart to the pits, where
thrown into them and, after all the people who had arrived at the camp
that day had been exterminated, the pits would be covered with soil.
So it would continue until all the people who were brought to the camp
were dead.
As I testified above, apart from suffocation by gas, the people at the
Sobibor camp were also exterminated through shooting.
Those civilians who were unable to move on their own, in particular,
were shot.
As a rule, immediately after unloading of the train, they would be
taken by the "work detail" to a separate hut, called "clinic" and they
stayed there until those who could move on their own had been
exterminated in the gas chambers.
The number of the sick from one train would come to 30-50 people,
depending on the number of trains that would arrive on one day. All
the sick who had stayed at the "clinic" were brought by a "work
detail", undressed, to the pits and were shot by us - the Wachmans and
the Germans, at short range.
Until December 1942, the bodies used to be buried in pits in the area
of the camp. From December 1942, they began to burn the bodies in
large bonfires, with the help of bulldozers that began to remove the
bodies of those who had been exterminated previously and burn them in
bonfires. Members of the "work detail" performed the work.
Thus in practice was the mass destruction performed of civilians of
Jewish nationality at the Sobibor death camp, at which I served as a
Wachman from May 1942 to July 1943.
Question: How exactly was your personal participation in the
destruction of civilians of Jewish nationality at the Sobibor camp
expressed?
Answer: As I have testified in the course of the interrogation, I
served at the Sobibor camp as a Wachman from May 1942 to July 1943.
From May to June 1942, i.e. for a month or two, I served guarding the
camp and the people brought there for extermination, inter alia I
stood on guard behind a barbed wire fence.
I have testified above that all the Wachmans who [illegible text]
commandant - Lieman, about whom I testified above. [transcription
note:earlier text used "Nieman." knm] He, personally, would give the
orders as to who, from among the Wachmans, would take part that day in
the executions by shooting. I have already testified to the fact that
all the sick stayed at the "clinic", and when all the civilians had
been exterminated in gas chambers, members of a "work detail" would
undress the sick and bring them to the pits where they would be shot
at short range by us, - Wachmans, and by the Germans.
During May-June 1942, I twice took part personaly in the shooting of
two groups of people. The first time, a group of 50 sick and infirm
were shot by the Wachmans, I among them. At the execution by shooting,
a group of Wachmans and Germans, about 10 in number, took part.
I personally shot with a rifle and killed on this occasion not more
than 5 people.
The second time, also in June 1942, I participated in an execution by
shooting of a group of civilians that consisted of about 25 persons.
I personally killed on that occasion not more than 3 people.
It did not work out for me to take part in other extermination
operations on a personal basis.
In June 1942, I was appointed by the camp command to work inside the
camp as a carpenter. I buld "dressing rooms", huts for the storage of
effects and clothes of the people who were being destroyed at the
camp. Apart from that, watch towers around the camp were built with my
participation.
In December 1942, for my loyal service in the German SS forces and for
good work as a carpenter, I was promoted to the rank of Oberwachman.
Question: How many civilians were exterminated at Sobibor camp during
your service there?
Answer: I cannot day because I don't know. On average, at Sobibor
camp, 1,500 innocent civilians were exterminated each day.
Question: Until when did you serve at the Sobibor camp?
Answer: I served at the Sobibor camp until July 1943 and afterwards I
was sent by the camp command to the area of Rama Russkaya for
preparation of building materials for the camp. I injured myself there
by change and in November-December 1943 I was dismissed from service
in the SS forces.
Question: What do you have to add to your testimony regarding your
activity at the Sobibor death camp?
Answer: I have nothing to add. My activity at the Sobibor death camp
during my service there has been described by me in full.
The minutes have been read out before me; recorded according to what I
said correctly.
Razgoniev
The interrogation was conducted by: Deputy Direcotr of the
Investigations Department of the State Ministry of Defense, Major
Nichayev
Investigator of the Investigations Department of the State Ministry of
Defense, Lt. Ribleka
True copy.
Stamp.
Senior Investigator of the Investigations Department of the State
Ministry of Defence, Lt. Chernov - signature
Confirmation - The original of the minutes of the interrogation is in
Criminal File No. 5828 versus Razgoneiv M. A. Archives No. 1877.
Senior investigator of the Investigations Department of the State
Ministry of Defense, Lt. Chernov - signature
Stamp
Correct
Director of the State Attorney's Office of the Soviet Union - A.P.
Vladimirov.
The photocopy was made from the copy that is in Criminal 1-
Stamp.

This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and
to combat hatred.
Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.

As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may
include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and
provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist
and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.